


the course of true love

by Shuburger (paperface)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dysfunctional Relationships, Football | Soccer, It might break your heart, Luisa plays Sherlock, Maybe - Freeform, Multi, Natasha and Luisa's lives parallel each other it's kinda cool, Non-Linear Narrative, blended families - Freeform, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 13:35:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7575928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperface/pseuds/Shuburger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha and Piero met on the second night of freshman year and they talked from 3am to 8am, launching the tumultuous and intense love of a lifetime. Years later, after two kids and a divorce, they have become reluctant co-parents, friendly but not friends. For the sake of their sons, they embark on a summer vacation with their full extended family. Nineteen-year-old Luisa, the youngest daughter from Natasha's second marriage, is intrigued by the sudden falling out of an intense romance. She pieces together the rise and fall of Natasha's life before while struggling with her first serious relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the course of true love

If the world was a fairer place, Benji's would have been shut down many years ago and the once beautiful building on the corner of a busy London street could have turned into a coffeeshop or a restaurant that was actually clean. However, the devil-may-care attitude that permeated the bar—mostly because it was the attitude of the staff—coupled with the cramped area and wooden interior made Benji's authentic and college kids flocked there, mostly the internationals from King's College London. They liked Benji's because it was cheap, never realizing that the alcohol was watered down. Decorum and class became nonexistent over the Benji threshold and that was the appeal. Kids wanted a place where they could lose their shit. 

Tonight was one of those nights, the bartender reflected, watching hordes of giddy, laughing students pile in, high off the end of the term. The bartender's name was Hal and he emitted a grumpy aura, but if you left him alone, he'd leave you alone. He disliked other people, but didn't mind the talking so much—as a bartender, you got used to it—as long as he wasn't counted on to reply. Hal was balding but hadn't realized it yet. Hal's not important to this story. 

Our story actually doesn't start in Benji's but rather two blocks down, where Luisa Kuronuma, running late because of a long shower, gets caught in a flash storm, common for the summer, especially after the recent heatstroke. It's much more interesting to look into Hal's future than watch Luisa curse and debate between letting the rain flatten her curls or protect them with her leather jacket, and possibly ruin the jacket. Hal will catch onto the baldness in seven months, then he will start to grow out his hair in the front and pull it back into a man bun. Nothing in the future or the past explains why a self-assured man like Hal, who never put much stock in what other people thought, was so self-conscious about hair loss. He cried about it once in the shower—well, he will cry in the shower, and one can only assume it's the hair loss because other than that, Hal's life is quite stabile. Fascinating. 

Right now, none of that has happened yet. Luisa is still out in the rain, and Hal is pouring drinks for the kid in front of him. His name is Caspar and he's more interested in staring at the football match on the television in the corner of the bar, than talking to Hal. Hal is also more interested in the match. 

Hal had finished pouring the beers and nudged one into Caspar's elbow, breaking his football trance. "Thanks."

Caspar was a tall kid, still a bit lanky, with blonde hair that was starting to darken, with a very sharp nose. He was from Belgium but his English was impeccable, no trace of an accent to give him away. At King's College, he studied history. For all his mastery of the past, the future left him frazzled. Not that it showed. On the outside, Caspar had it together. 

Caspar carried the beers back to his friends just as Luisa burst through the doors, out of breath and curls doused. 

"Shit." She should have realized Benji's would be packed. Before Luisa could fully step into the bar, a wave of people nearly knocked her out. She grabbed onto the wall for balance, grimacing as she touched something sticky. Sticking close to the wall, Luisa inched her way to the tables. 

A group of boys in front of her let out a huge laugh and one stepped into her, his beer splashing on her arm, but he was too drunk to notice. 

"Thanks." Luisa narrowed her eyes as she zeroed in on his Real jersey. "Your team's shit, mate."

He was too drunk to respond but his friend leaned over, "Fucking joke, right? What does an American know about football?"

"You mean soccer." After running down two blocks in humid rain into a sticky, crowded bar, Luisa was in the mood to pick a fight. She'd lived in Europe long enough to know how to provoke them with her barbaric American ways.

"Real's literally the best club in the world. What have you got, the MLS?"

Luisa raised an eyebrow. "Take out Ronaldo, what do you have?"

The friend started rattling off a list of players. His name was Jamie and he liked Luisa right away. She had spunk. Unfortunately, their paths would never cross again after this. 

"Fantastic." Luisa looked around, straining her ears against the shitty house music, football commentary, and boisterous chatter. At 5"3, all she could see where heads bobbing past, some with trays of beers raised above them like halos. 

Jamie grinned. "That's all you've got?"

She turned back to him. "I didn't come here for a soccer debate, I came for a drink with my friends."

"Well, I can buy you a drink and maybe then we can be friends." Luisa raised her eyebrow at that. Jamie laughed and sipped his beer. "That's fucking hot, that—" he gestured to his own eyebrow. 

"I get that a lot." Luisa turned back to the crowd, any interest in antagonizing people lost. It was true. Luisa was the offspring of a Dutch-Indo and Italian mother and a Japanese father, which made her looks hard to place. Guys either called it "exotic" or "hot". It happened so often, it didn't affect Luisa. The words held no meaning for her. Too many brushes with racial fetishization made her wary of her anyone who put an immediate emphasis on appearance. 

Luisa's complexion was a light brown she'd gotten from her Indonesian side and her hair was thick and black. Her build was Indonesian too, her mother had told her, short and stocky, a bit of shape but thick calves. She'd gotten her father's nose and her father's lips and an uneven abundance of freckles across her face. Her eyes were hazel and big, a shape somewhere between her father's mono lids and her mother's slanted double lids. 

Jamie kept talking to her, but Luisa had clocked a familiar head of blonde hair carrying some beers over to a table in the back. She disappeared into the crowd, trying to slither through instead of using her elbows—there was never a time to elbow your way past someone. 

Finally, she reached the table with her friends. 

"You made it," Kulpreet said. She was on her phone and sober as a stone. 

Luisa pointed at her accusingly. "You do not look like the life of a party. Can we get some life of the party in this girl?"

"I tried," Nele said. "She refused."

"I had to do her shot for her," YiHong said. 

"Oh, you must have hated that," Kulpreet said. YiHong grinned. 

Luisa glanced at Caspar. He was making designs in the condensation of his beer glass. His blue eyes flickered up to meet hers and he inclined his head in a way of greeting. 

"You want to sit?" Matthew asked her. Matthew and Luisa had bonded over being both hapa and American in an economics class. Being half Filipino, Matthew experienced the same fetishization Luisa had. 

"Sure." Luisa shook her hair. 

"Ew." Kulpreet made a face.

"As if the water droplets hit you."

"Actually," Caspar said, "I think I felt something." 

"Maybe I just spat at you." Luisa slid past him and settled in between Matthew and Kulpreet. The six of them were smushed in a round booth. Matthew, YiHong and Nele continued a previous conversation. Kulpreet's scowl resurfaced on her face. "What is up with you?"

Kulpreet shook her head. "I'm really fine."

"You're a grump. Come on, let's do some shots. Tequila. You love tequila. Remember that time at Carl's?"

"Yeah." Kulpreet smiled for a minute then it vanished. "I can't, though. I'm so nervous. My stomach's turning inside out. If I drink anything, I'll puke, I know I will."

"What are you nervous about? Term's over."

"Grades aren't in yet," Nele called over the background noise. 

"Kulpreet, you're a genius," Caspar said. "You worry over nothing."

"It's not just that." Kulpreet squirmed, clearly uncomfortable. "Everything's going to change next year, isn't it? We all live in different countries for the summer. We won't have the same classes next year—"

"Nothing's going to change." Even as Luisa said it, she caught herself doubting it. Everything would be different next year. Different friendships would form through different classes, a new rut would be formed. It was the bittersweet transition from high school to college that there was no guarantee for things to stay the same. Adult friendships were more fragile. A hometown didn't bind them the way it bonded high school friendships. 

"You can't know that." Kulpreet, a well-hidden emotional well, was getting more animated. The frustration brought tears to her eyes. 

Caspar and Luisa looked at each other, then quickly looked away. 

YiHong, the grounded antidote to Kulpreet's deep emotions, had moved over to her and was reassuring her in fast, quiet sentences. 

"This is a terrible way to say goodbye to everyone," Nele sighed. "I'm doing shots at the bar, then I'm going to talk to a cute girl. Who's in?"

"I need some shots, I just got here."

"Me too." Caspar sat up straight.

Luisa glanced down at the table, a twinkle in her eye. "You still have half a beer."

"I could use some shots."

"Never deny anyone shots, Kuronuma. To the bar, folk. Matt?"

 

"My God, look at them go." Caspar leaned into the bar, laughing to himself. 

Luisa looked at him a little longer than followed his gaze. Nele had made good on her promise to increase her level of intoxication. Now she was grinding on a redheaded girl they'd seen around on campus. Matthew, after a few shots, had gotten caught up in a conversation with a group of strangers he'd quickly made friends. He had a talent for that, making friends anywhere. Sociable guy. 

That left Luisa and Caspar and after the third tequila shot, Luisa decided she liked looking at Caspar. He liked looking at the people. They complemented each other that way, one drawn to action, to the big picture, and one drawn to intimacy, to the details. From the moment she'd met him and they started talking, Luisa had known they were a perfect fit. It was hard to make perfect work in an imperfect world.

"Lou—" When she didn't answer, Caspar turned to her. She smiled and touched his face. 

"I like your face."

"I like yours too, Lou."

"I don't like thinking about three months without you."

"Kulpreet has infected you."

"She has a point. Is this going to happen next year? You know, like, us?"

"You think too much." Caspar flipped over so he was staring at the mirror behind the bar, warping the festivities behind him. Hal was at the other end of the bar, mixing drinks and sneaking glimpses of the match. 

Luisa deflated, her eyes gazing out at the sea of people. "I know. I feel my mind racing. Sometimes I think it's going to burn up like a computer."

Caspar worked his jaw, opening and closing his mouth again. He knew what he wanted to say, but not how. Luisa saw this out of the corner of her eye. He hesitated and she pondered. 

"Lou, this is what you wanted," he said finally. "You said you didn't want a relationship. I'm not sure if I can do this again for another year. When will it—what will come of it? I want there to be a future."

"I know, Caspar. There's just—stuff with my mom, it's complicated."

"Do you want a relationship with me or not? What do you want?" 

"I just—" Luisa fumbled with the words. She could see Kulpreet and YiHong at their booth, conversing frantically in an attempt to stop the inevitable. Her stomach lurched. Everything was planned out, an arc, and no matter what you tried to do you were either rising to the peak or descending toward the end. Ends always came. 

She wanted to be out in the rain again. Run through all the streets of London. Catch a midnight train to everywhere. Caspar's blue eyes were burning into her with an intensity that made her reckless. There were three things she was certain of: 1) she wanted to be with Caspar, 2) she didn't want to tie herself down, and 3) she was full of recklessness and tequila, which never amounted to anything good. 

"I'm sorry," Caspar said. "I shouldn't have said anything. We both agreed to it. Sometimes, I forget the reasons."

Luisa leaned into him and smiled. She knew she had a good smile. Everyone commented on her father's smile. Kuronumas have big grins, he'd say to the chagrin of her sister, who'd gotten their mother's mouth. "Me too."

Caspar beckoned for two more shots. Hal complied. "Truce?"

"Truce." 

They toasted. 

"I'll do you a favor," Luisa said, her mouth still burning from the whiskey. How Caspar could love whiskey, she'd never understand.

"A favor?"

"Yes. "

"What could that be? I have never heard of Luisa Kuronuma doing anyone a favor."

"Consider it recompense for all the physics tutoring."

"If that is so, then you, my good friend, would owe me a small fortune."

"I do, but you're getting a favor. I'm not going to bother thinking about what we are. No pondering." 

"What do you mean?"

"I'm serious about being not serious. My overthinking stops now. You follow me?"

"Not...quite." 

Luisa leaned forward and kissed him. "You follow me now?"

"Ah." Caspar leaned back to do a little overthinking of his own. "Um. Ah. Uh. Um. Yes. Yes, I do follow you."

"Good." 

Caspar's hands found the small of her back, beneath her shirt—warm skin on warm skin. Luisa stroked his face again. She couldn't fight the smile from her face. They were entwined at Benji's and simultaneously in the past and in the future. Their faces were so close together. Luisa could feel the stubble on his chin, pricking her like little thorns. She could see the freckle in his left eye. 

Caspar's eyes went from her eyes down her nose to her lips and back again. He took her in the same way, systemically. Like he wanted to make sure it really was the same Luisa each time. No new freckles had appeared. 

"Caspar..." she murmured softly as their smiles faded and their eyes darkened. 

His lips found hers, his hands pulling her tighter against his body. Luisa tangled her hands in his hair. His mouth tasted so familiar and it hit her not for the first time, how easy it was to kiss Caspar. They never clashed teeth, he never sucked her lip too hard. They just fit so well together, even when their hair was sweaty and their eyes glazed over and their heartbeats going a thousand miles an hour. Even in that state, they still fit. 

It was in this moment that the seed for Luisa Kuronuma's grand excavation started, when she could look into Caspar's eyes and see the adrenaline and passion that was driving him, but also the affection because with Caspar there was always affection. This is what led Luisa to discover the course of true love.

And, as Shakespeare put it, it never did run smooth.


End file.
